i lived in an apt in Tokyo that makes those places look huge! i had one little hot plate, a teeny sink (both in a "unit") and a "unit bath" which was all in a pre-installed plastic unit. It was seriously like an airplane in there. Yet it was pretty cool. I had a largish toaster oven and cooked on one of those bottled gas burners. No other appliances, not even blender or anything. No space. I never ate at home anyway.

I just bought a house that is 49m3, so what, 150 square feet? It's small. It's easy to clean, cozy, stays warm in the winter without heating, works fine for me. The wood flooring was cheap, hehe. My mother's house is something like 1500sqft and i just can't imagine taking care of that kind of space. I have stuff to do, you know?

I think re-purposing an existing building into housing is a great idea, assuming that the units are liveable long-term and not going to turn into slums in three seconds. These seem more viable as a long-term living situation in cities where affordable housing is a real problem.

lycophyte wrote:

There are also those microwave convection ovens, so that would be 2 appliances in one. though not quite a toaster.

Yep. There are other multi-use appliances designed for just this purpose too.

Alaina wrote:

Micro apartments are primarily designed for one person, particularly a young person who doesn't have a lot of stuff. I think that a lot of these apartments are going to essentially become transient housing, in the sense that people stay in them for a short period of time before moving onto something else, which may or may not be in a different area. They don't cater to the elderly, or to families, and thus foster no sense of permanence within the neighborhood.

I tend to feel that they are an interesting design problem, but in terms of urban planning something that should be limited. As some noted they are essentially one step above dorm rooms.

I'm going to partially disagree with you. I do agree that they should be limited and that any "dorm-like" living situation doesn't exactly appeal for a long term stay, but depending on the way the building is designed and how nice the unit is I think it could work as a long-term solution for singles or couples or even people with small families. Micro-apartments are probably a nightmare for anyone who has more than one pet, though.

I lived in a 225-ish sq ft apartment with my boyfriend for two years. He lived in it by himself for three years prior to that. We're glad to have more space now, but the main reason we ended up moving was because our landlord was a jackass who never fixed anything, not because of the size. Anyway, our unit had a full-sized fridge, a small electric oven with range (four burners on top, and the oven part was big enough to fit a cookie sheet or baking tray or whatever), and a bathroom with a shower-tub combo. We had enough room by the cooking appliances to put in a little butcher block island thing like the one in ijustdiedinside's photo. I cooked a lot in that "kitchen", about 90% of our meals actually. It certainly wasn't the greatest environment for large-scale baking projects, but I made it work. We had to make some sacrifices for the sake of space, like not owning a microwave for example, but is that something we really needed? Guess not! Technically the place was a studio but the bed area was separate from the living room area, so it was possible to get a little bit of privacy (sort of). My biggest issue with the size is that if one of us had to poop the other one would be able to hear the entire thing (but maybe my bf is just a loud pooper, because we live in a 2 br now and I can still hear him sometimes.) Anyway, my point is that I think it's possible to inhabit a tiny apartment with more than one person long-term, especially if the multi-tasking space-saving bits are factored into the design and not afterthoughts.

Also: You'd be amazed at how much crepe we fit in that apartment. Really.

I love the idea of more tiny apartments like this. Around here studios are very rare and as a single person renting an apartment often even 1 bedroom rent can be very high - in the $800-900 range for something decent. So then single people end up having to get a roommate so they can split a 2 bedroom rent of say $1000 ish so it will come out cheaper. When I was looking for an apt just out of college I would have jumped at a tiny affordable apartment like this, rather than picking a roommate off the internet, which is what I ended up doing!

I had the tiniest apartment in NYC around NYU. It was basically a bedroom with a little kitchen built in on the side and a tiny bathroom. It was under 200ft and $800 a month (and that was 12 years ago), but it was awesome - centrally located, really light and airy.

I would definitely prefer a micro-apartment to roommates.

_________________My oven is bigger on the inside, and it produces lots of wibbly wobbly, cake wakey... stuff. - The PoopieB.

I just bought a house that is 49m3, so what, 150 square feet? It's small. It's easy to clean, cozy, stays warm in the winter without heating, works fine for me. The wood flooring was cheap, hehe. My mother's house is something like 1500sqft and i just can't imagine taking care of that kind of space. .

50m2 or cubed? 50m2 is about 450 sq. ft. My two bedroom apartment is something like 800 sq ft. I think I'd have a hard time living in anything smaller with my family. There'd just be no way to get away from them and I'd feel pretty stuck in a smaller place with a toddler in the winter.

I lived in a very comfortable small studio in college, maybe 300 sq ft, with an acceptable bathroom, two big closets, and a full eat in kitchen! Before I chose that one, I looked at an efficiency that had a slightly smaller bedroom/living room and a galley kitchen, but I couldn't get my head around pooping and showering in the kitchen, mostly because how would you entertain? I used to have parties of twenty or more people in my studio and it was perfectly comfortable. $650, in Cleveland, about 12 years ago. It was probably a rip off and it was more than twice what I paid to share a giant apartment in a better location with four other people before that, but in that place I had to deal with people who made me feel unsafe and who were filthy.

Sometimes when I go to ikea I fantasize about living alone in one of their micro apartment displays. They seem so cozy. I still don't think I could deal with not being able to entertain long term, though. If I lived in one of those, it'd have to be in a building with a nice common room.

Yeah, a tiny apartment is not really a good for hosting gatherings. I feel like some larger apartment and condo complexes have conference-type rooms you can rent and use for hosting parties and stuff like that. It certainly makes sense to have something like that in a mixed-use building anyway!

Yeah, a tiny apartment is not really a good for hosting gatherings. I feel like some larger apartment and condo complexes have conference-type rooms you can rent and use for hosting parties and stuff like that. It certainly makes sense to have something like that in a mixed-use building anyway!

the cohousing places I know have these-- smaller apartment or condo-like dwellings that share a central gathering place. It seems really appealing, as long as you choose your community pretty carefully.

I think re-purposing an existing building into housing is a great idea, assuming that the units are liveable long-term and not going to turn into slums in three seconds. These seem more viable as a long-term living situation in cities where affordable housing is a real problem.

lycophyte wrote:

There are also those microwave convection ovens, so that would be 2 appliances in one. though not quite a toaster.

Yep. There are other multi-use appliances designed for just this purpose too.

Alaina wrote:

Micro apartments are primarily designed for one person, particularly a young person who doesn't have a lot of stuff. I think that a lot of these apartments are going to essentially become transient housing, in the sense that people stay in them for a short period of time before moving onto something else, which may or may not be in a different area. They don't cater to the elderly, or to families, and thus foster no sense of permanence within the neighborhood.

I tend to feel that they are an interesting design problem, but in terms of urban planning something that should be limited. As some noted they are essentially one step above dorm rooms.

I'm going to partially disagree with you. I do agree that they should be limited and that any "dorm-like" living situation doesn't exactly appeal for a long term stay, but depending on the way the building is designed and how nice the unit is I think it could work as a long-term solution for singles or couples or even people with small families. Micro-apartments are probably a nightmare for anyone who has more than one pet, though.

I lived in a 225-ish sq ft apartment with my boyfriend for two years. He lived in it by himself for three years prior to that. We're glad to have more space now, but the main reason we ended up moving was because our landlord was a jackass who never fixed anything, not because of the size. Anyway, our unit had a full-sized fridge, a small electric oven with range (four burners on top, and the oven part was big enough to fit a cookie sheet or baking tray or whatever), and a bathroom with a shower-tub combo. We had enough room by the cooking appliances to put in a little butcher block island thing like the one in ijustdiedinside's photo. I cooked a lot in that "kitchen", about 90% of our meals actually. It certainly wasn't the greatest environment for large-scale baking projects, but I made it work. We had to make some sacrifices for the sake of space, like not owning a microwave for example, but is that something we really needed? Guess not! Technically the place was a studio but the bed area was separate from the living room area, so it was possible to get a little bit of privacy (sort of). My biggest issue with the size is that if one of us had to poop the other one would be able to hear the entire thing (but maybe my bf is just a loud pooper, because we live in a 2 br now and I can still hear him sometimes.) Anyway, my point is that I think it's possible to inhabit a tiny apartment with more than one person long-term, especially if the multi-tasking space-saving bits are factored into the design and not afterthoughts.

Also: You'd be amazed at how much crepe we fit in that apartment. Really.

Well I wasn't saying that it's impossible for one person to inhabit these apartments long term, my point was that in terms of urban planning, what is the ratio of these apartments to people who are going to inhabit them long term, vs. short term? Generally the long term number is pretty low, because a lot of people don't see themselves staying long term, and the short-term number is high.Point being that since these apartments only work as a long term solution for a small %, large amounts of short-term housing can have negative effects on a community. Hence the reason to limit them to what is appropriate for the community.

On another note: Common rooms. A lot of the buildings I service have common rooms / spaces. They hardly ever get used. They tend to be an amenity in newer buildings which drive the price up, but people who can pay more tend to not use them because they can afford to rent better spaces elsewhere. (Ie: higher maintenance / rent on the apartment) In a 100 units, maybe 2 people will use the common room once or twice a year. These spaces would get more use in low-income housing, which sadly tends to not provide such spaces. I only know of one public housing project in my area which has a common room for rent, and that's out of dozens of buildings. But that room is used all the time. Common room in new expensive rental condo in the LES? Building's been up three years and it's been used maybe 6 times. The gym and pool get used more, but not tons.

My mother lives in an condo apartment with a nice common room. Definitely high rent area. Their common room gets used all the time. We also rented an apartment for the weekend when we were out in LA in a nice building with a common room - it was always occupied. I think it depends more on the culture of the building than the class.

My mother lives in an condo apartment with a nice common room. Definitely high rent area. Their common room gets used all the time. We also rented an apartment for the weekend when we were out in LA in a nice building with a common room - it was always occupied. I think it depends more on the culture of the building than the class.

Maybe, in NYC they tend to not get used in high end buildings though (think mega mega rich), I've noticed that consistently. Some get used, but more do not. I've had to turn some into storage, laundry rooms, gyms, locker rooms for staff....usually because the client wants to use an unused space. It's hard to separate culture and class though, they kind of effect each other a lot.